


It Has To Be You

by disAsterling



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aromantic Kairi, Gen, I’m not tagging every single character who appears, Roxas can’t say fuck since this is a KH fic, but he can sure as hell think it, do I know where this is going? nope, in which the author dabbles in chapter titles, it’s my fic and I get to choose the headcanons, more characters will be added if anyone else becomes relevant enough, rated for some deep mental health shit, ships will not be tagged in their official tags unless they take front and center, side leaisa, side rokushi, side soriku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disAsterling/pseuds/disAsterling
Summary: “Sora, see? This is why it has to be you!”But it can’t be him. Even Riku’s best efforts can’t awaken Sora’s ravaged heart after saving him from the Organization’s clutches. And so, soon after his conversation with Sora deep in the realm of dreams, Roxas awakens to find the Guardians of Light expecting him to take Sora’s place.
Relationships: Axel & Kairi & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 11





	1. In Which Sora Doesn’t Awaken, While Someone Else Does

**Author's Note:**

> If you're going to read my fic just for purposes of being an unsolicited "beta reader" (read: jackass), then don't bother. Also, please reevaluate your life choices.

“Sora… please, you have to wake up!” Riku shook his friend’s limp form.  _ “Please.” _

“The Organization’s meddling must have left him too weak to awaken.” Master Yen Sid’s voice was even graver than usual.

“But I freed him from the Nightmare. This can’t—this shouldn’t be happening!” Riku sounded manic even to his own ears.

“I am afraid he may never wake again,” Yen Sid rumbled.

“No…!” Riku hugged Sora’s limp form to himself, as if he could wake him up with his love alone. That was a thing, right? The power of true love and all that? But was Riku’s love enough after all the ways he had strayed?

A gloved hand on his shoulder brought Riku back to the present. “We’ll find a way to wake him up,” King Mickey promised, his voice chipper as ever; if Riku hadn’t known him as well as he did, he never would have been able to tell the King was just as worried as he was.

Sora twitched, shifting in Riku’s arms. Riku started at the sensation, nearly dropping Sora on the floor. Instead he laid him down carefully, not trusting his shaking hands to hold his beloved right now. Sora’s face looked pale, his breathing shallow… if he was breathing at all. Riku couldn’t tell, and wasn’t sure he wanted to know if the answer was no.

“Gawrsh, he don’t look so good.” Riku shied away from Goofy, who was leaning over his shoulder to look at Sora. “We better do  _ somethin’  _ or he might not wake up at all!”

“He will,” Donald insisted (as near as Riku could tell; he found it difficult to understand the royal wizard’s garbled speech).

A long breath, almost a sigh, left Sora’s lips, drawing everyone’s eyes. He looked small and sad lying on the floor like that, nothing like the cheerful, loving, courageous warrior Riku knew him to be. And… he wasn’t inhaling. It seemed that sigh may have been his final breath.

Before Riku could process that horrible thought, there was a ripple of—something. Not light, not darkness, just a shimmer of distortion in the air above and around Sora—and suddenly his battle gear was gone, his face shrouded by the distinctive hood of one of the Organization’s black capes. He shot to his feet, the Kingdom Key flaring into existence in his hands.

“What’s going on?”

Wait.

That wasn’t Sora’s voice.

But it was a voice Riku knew.

A voice he had been quietly dreading ever hearing again.

“Roxas?”


	2. In Which Roxas Decides To Go Rogue And Walks In On An Apocalypse

The first thing Roxas was aware of was eyes on him. Lots and lots of eyes. He leaped to his feet and summoned his Keyblade, glancing around wildly. Strangers—a tall man with a forked beard, a duck in wizard’s garb, a dog in knight’s armor, and a strangely familiar-looking mouse. “What’s going on?”

“Roxas?”

Ah.  _ That  _ face, he knew. “Riku.”

Forked Beard steepled his fingers. “So you are Roxas.”

Wizard Duck made a noise somewhere between a screech and a sneeze. After a moment, Roxas realized there were words in it. “How are you here?” Or something like that.

Roxas took a step back from the crowd of strangers and encountered a wall.  _ Fuck.  _ Surveying his surroundings, he found that he was in a round room—maybe a tower room?—with a desk in the middle and shelves lining the walls, some filled with books, others with strange paraphernalia whose purposes he could only guess at. The only door he could see was at the far end of the room, with three animals, a desk, Forked Beard, and an old enemy between it and him.

“I asked you a question!” Wizard Duck complained.

“I don’t know!” Roxas snapped. “I just woke up here!”

“Woke up…” Forked Beard mused. “What is the last thing you remember?”

“Remember…?” Roxas paused to think. “It’s foggy… but I think I was in the World That Never Was, and I was talking—Sora!” Memories of the conversation came flooding back, though whether they were Sora’s or his own, he couldn’t be sure. “Shouldn’t Sora be here? He was supposed to wake up!”

“Yeah.” Riku’s voice was grim, his expression stormy. “He was. But he didn’t.”

“And then you did!” Dog Knight finished.

“Oh.” It took a moment for the implications to set in.  _ “Oh.  _ What… happened? To him?”

“Xehanort.”

“Gesundheit.”

Riku let out a huff.  _ “Xehanort,  _ the evil mastermind behind the whole Organization?”

Roxas was almost too confused to be annoyed.  _ Almost.  _ “I thought that was Xemnas.”

“Xemnas is Xehanort’s Nobody—and before you ask, Ansem is his Heartless, and his younger and even more annoying self can apparently also time travel to the present, and together, they’re trying to create what they call the true Organization by finding thirteen vessels for his heart. Sora was going to be their thirteenth. We got him out of there with Lea’s help, but I—“ Riku’s voice cracked, and he turned away. “I couldn’t wake him.”

“...and I woke up instead,” Roxas guessed, his head spinning. “Okay. I understood… some of that. Not sure I even  _ want  _ to know about a Heartless version of Xemnas or any time-traveling younger selves. Who’s Lea?”

“You were in the original Organization, weren’t you? You would have known him as Axel.”

Roxas lit up. “Axel’s here?” Then he gave Riku a dubious look. “Helping  _ you?” _

“He is training to become a Keyblade wielder and fight on the side of light in the upcoming battle,” Forked Beard cut in smoothly.

_ A Keyblade wielder!  _ Roxas could scarcely believe it, but the old man’s statement had brought to mind a more pressing question. “Upcoming battle?”

“Xehanort wishes to summon the  _ X- _ Blade and open Kingdom Hearts. To do so, he must force a clash between—“

“Okay, stop,” Roxas interrupted. “More Kingdom Hearts mumbo jumbo. Just like Xemnas.”

“Why do you suppose Xemnas was so fixated on Kingdom Hearts in the first place?”

Roxas glared at Forked Beard. “Right, same person. And there’s no need to patronize me.”

“Show some respect!” Duck Wizard exploded. He launched into a loud, angry rant, even less coherent than his speaking voice already was.

Roxas decided not to waste his time trying to comprehend Duck Wizard’s berating. “You said something about forcing a clash. What’s that about?”

Forked Beard hummed deeply. “It is said that a clash of thirteen darknesses and seven lights will forge the  _ X- _ Blade, the key to Kingdom Hearts itself.”

“Okaaaay, so if that’s what the Xemnas Gang wants, what if the lights just… don’t show up?”

Riku snorted. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

Familiar Mouse strategically placed himself between Riku and Roxas, speaking quickly before Roxas could give Riku a good smack like he deserved. “If the Guardians of Light don’t show up, the Organization will just use the Princesses of Heart instead, and they won’t stand a chance! We can’t let that happen!”

“So, you’re stuck.”

“We’re all stuck,” Familiar Mouse half-agreed, his expression clearly communicating that Roxas was included in that “we.”

Roxas lifted his chin. “I don’t have to do what you say.” He turned to Forked Beard. “Where is Axel?”

“But he’s the King!” Dog Knight interrupted before Forked Beard could give Roxas an answer. “He knows what he’s talkin’ about!”

“That’s right!” the so-called King piped up. “And we could really use your help, Roxas.”

Roxas gritted his teeth. “Where. Is. Axel?”

How Forked Beard could remain unperturbed with all the chaos around him, especially Duck Wizard’s still-ceaseless ranting, Roxas couldn’t fathom. “He is in Radiant Garden, training under Merlin, but I am afraid you will not be able to visit him without the help of Donald and Goofy’s Gummi Ship.” He stopped speaking there, but the implication was clear:  _ help us fight the Xemnas Gang, or say goodbye to any chance of seeing Axel again. _

“Bull,” Roxas declared, opening a dark corridor.

“Ya really shouldn’t—“ Dog Knight started. That was all Roxas heard before stepping through and closing the way behind him.

Freezing wind tugged at Roxas’s hair and cape for the brief moment he was in the corridor; then he stepped out into the light, and the sensation was gone.

The sun was setting in the world where he ended up, casting warm red-gold-orange light over the landscape that spread out beneath the hilltop where Roxas had come out. Before him were houses, buildings, a bustling square, a forest off to one side, and… oh. He knew that clock tower. This was Twilight Town, not Radiant Garden. It occurred to him that he’d never actually  _ been  _ to Radiant Garden.

Much as he wanted to wander the streets again, see the sights, finding Axel was his priority.  _ If he even wants to see me again. We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.  _ Roxas shook his head angrily to clear the unwelcome thought. Axel was his best friend, along with… with… Hayner, Pence, and Olette? They were his friends, or they had been in the data world, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing someone. Which was ridiculous, since he didn’t even  _ know  _ that many people.

_ Radiant Garden. I can do this.  _ Not sure exactly what he was looking for, Roxas opened another dark corridor, picturing a large, sunlit garden—maybe with luminous flowers or something? That didn’t seem quite right. How radiant was Radiant? Realizing this line of thinking was getting him nowhere, he stepped through the corridor.

He had found a garden, that was certain. Wide paths lined with tall, neatly-trimmed hedges converged on Roxas’s location, where a fountain burbled cheerfully, surrounded by pink, yellow, and white flowers. He could also see a gazebo and several statues in various heroic poses down some of the paths. And whatever world this was, was certainly radiant. The sun blazed hot in the sky overhead, as did the multiple flaming rocks hurtling toward the ground at deadly speeds.

From the sound of screams, Roxas gathered that he was in or near a fairly large town or city.  _ Not my problem,  _ he told himself, preparing to open another corridor, but just then,  _ something  _ blazed past him overhead. Literally. Sparks and bits of flame fell from it, most dissipating before they could land anywhere, but a few blackening the tiny patches of ground or foliage they found. And this was no burning rock; it moved straight forward, purposefully, without losing any altitude.  _ What the…?  _ His curiosity piqued, Roxas ran after it.

It descended just beyond a nearby wall, dropping like a stone, and Roxas didn’t hesitate, charging up the wall and leaping down.

Right into the center of a whole ring of the things.

Up close, he could see that they were orb-shaped, with glowing flame-shaped crests on top, from which actual flames billowed. They also had round, glowing yellow eyes and gaping, craggy mouths that seemed to grin at Roxas.  _ Heartless,  _ he realized. Maybe this  _ was  _ his problem.

Nothing for it but to fight. He summoned his Keyblade and charged into battle. The Heartless had him outnumbered eight to one, but Roxas was pleased to find he had lost none of his prowess, and he had them far outmatched. In less than a minute, all that remained of the eight Heartless were the little fires they had left burning around the… where  _ was  _ he, anyway?

It looked like some sort of courtyard, walled on three sides with stairs descending from the fourth, scattered with pots and baskets as if people had been there recently but abandoned what they were carrying to run.

“You should get out of here before the Heartless—is that a Keyblade?”

Roxas whirled to face the newcomer. He was tall, tanned, and ridiculously muscular. Roxas was sure he had never seen that much muscle mass on one person; it made it hard to focus on anything else about the young man to whom the muscles belonged. “How do you know what a Keyblade is?”

“Never mind that right now,” Mister Muscles said, waving a hand. “The city is in danger! Care to lend a hand?”

Roxas scowled. “Do I have a choice?”

Mister Muscles’s eyes widened briefly, and he brought a hand to his chin, seeming to actually consider the question before responding. “Of course you do. You’d be crazy not to get as far away from here as possible until the danger is over.” He fixed Roxas with an intense look that Roxas couldn’t quite read. “What do you say? You crazy enough to help me?”

Against his better judgment, Roxas found himself warming to Mister Muscles. “You know what? Sure.”

“Follow me, then!” Mister Muscles tore off into the city, forcing Roxas to sprint to keep up with him. There were plenty of Heartless along the way, keeping Roxas and his Keyblade busy. It occurred to him that Mister Muscles hadn’t been carrying any weapons, but he didn’t have to wonder how he fought for long—as soon as they came across another group of Heartless, he became a whirlwind of fists.

The two emerged into a large plaza, where panicked cries met their ears. All the way across the way, a group of Heartless had backed a pair of children into a corner. “We’ll never… make it in time,” Roxas gasped, out of breath from running.

“Here, I’ll throw you.”

“What?” Before Roxas had time to argue, Mister Muscles grabbed him by the hood of his cloak and flung him into a high arc across the plaza.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Entirely unprepared for the impromptu flight, Roxas screamed all the way along his trajectory, though he had the presence of mind to dismiss his Keyblade so he wouldn’t clobber himself on landing. Somehow, he managed to roll and come up standing, only a little bit nauseous from the trip.

“Heeeeeellllp!”

_ Right. The Heartless.  _ Roxas summoned his Keyblade again and charged. This group consisted mainly of the Heartless species he recognized as Soldiers, a relatively weak variety, but formidable in numbers. But their numbers hadn’t met Roxas, and before long, there were none left in that part of the plaza. Roxas laughed. It felt good to be fighting Heartless again.

The children he’d all but forgotten he was saving (again) eyed him warily. “You’re scary, Mister,” one of them informed him.

“I came here to fight, not babysit,” Roxas retorted, turning his back on the children. Of course the comment hadn’t hurt; why would being scary in battle be a bad thing? But he still didn’t want to face the commenter. He told himself it was for the child’s sake, not his own, and could almost believe it.

Mister Muscles caught up to him, brushing his hands together as if to get rid of dirt or sand. “This area is clear, but there are bound to be more of them around the city. You still with me?”

_ Oh, what the hell.  _ “Why not?”

Mister Muscles put two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. Caught off-guard by the high, harsh sound, Roxas yanked up his hood, clamping his hands to his ears too late to prevent a stabbing pain from lancing through his head. “A little warning next time?” he complained.

“Sorry.” Mister Muscles gave him a sheepish—maybe apologetic?—smile, and Roxas responded with a noncommittal shake of his head.

After a few seconds, Roxas heard wing beats rapidly approaching. He looked up—and blinked. Squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Yep, it was still there. “You have a  _ flying horse?” _

The horse in question landed some distance away in a canter, slowing to a halt as it neared them. Roxas was no master of facial expressions on humans, let alone horses, but he could have sworn it looked smug. Mister Muscles beamed. “Meet Pegasus. Pegasus, meet… I don’t think I caught your name.”

“Roxas.” Roxas reached out a hesitant, wondering hand, and Pegasus shoved his nose into it, inviting him to pet his snout. “I don’t think I got yours either.”

Mister Muscles jerked at that, his eyes widening, but he recovered so quickly Roxas couldn’t be sure he hadn’t imagined the motion. “The name’s Hercules, but you can call me Herc.”

_ Hercules… where had Roxas heard that name before?  _ Before he could ponder the question too much, Pegasus stomped a foot and snorted, shaking his wings, and Hercules swung onto his back in one smooth motion. “We’d better get going.” He held out a hand, which Roxas dodged around, leaping onto Pegasus’s back behind Herc  _ without  _ help,  _ thank you very much. _

With a whoosh of air, they were off. This was nothing like being unexpectedly hurled across a courtyard. His stomach swooped, and he put out his arms to the side to feel the wind of their passage. Closing his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in Neverland again, soaring through the sky without any avian-equine assistance. The wind tugged back his hood and whipped through his hair, stirring it into an even wilder state than usual.

All too soon, Pegasus descended once more, landing at the edge of a courtyard in absolute pandemonium. As Roxas and Hercules dismounted, a pair of figures raced up to greet them.

“Glad to see you’re okay, Wonderboy.” The taller of the two figures, a young woman with dark hair and a sardonic smile, gave Hercules a kiss on the cheek. “And who’s this?”

“Hey, do I know you?” Dread filled Roxas as he recognized the voice and the person it belonged to: a short, pot-bellied goat-man Roxas knew to be the most brutal, relentless trainer in existence. Well, at least he knew which world he’d ended up in now, though this city looked nothing like the Coliseum.

Roxas hastily pulled his hood up. “Nope. Definitely never met you before.”

“Well, the name’s Phil, and don’t you forget it!” Roxas certainly hadn’t forgotten, but he was in no mood to be subjected to another round of the satyr’s intense training at the moment. Or ever.

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Meg.” The young woman held out a hand for Roxas to shake. Her grip was firm, and her eyes twinkled knowingly as if she had guessed exactly what Roxas was thinking about. That wasn’t possible, was it? Or maybe Phil always got this reaction from his former trainees. Roxas wouldn’t have been surprised.

After a moment, he realized everyone was staring at him. “What?”

Hercules stepped in. “This is Roxas. He’s been helping me clear out the Heartless. And get this—he’s another Keyblade wielder!”

Oh. Introductions. That  _ was  _ what they had been doing, wasn’t it.

“Nice to meet you,” he supplied to cover his lapse.

“Another Keyblade wielder, eh?” Phil looked Roxas up and down. “Are you sure we haven’t met?”

“I think I might’ve come to this world at some point in the past.” Roxas kept his response carefully vague.

Meg cleared her throat. “As sweet and touching as this possible reunion is, we’ve got bigger problems. Literally.”

As if on cue, the ground rumbled—or, no, rumbled wasn’t the right word. Because the ground wasn’t simply rumbling on its own. It shook from heavy, rhythmic thumps. Roxas summoned his Keyblade—just in time, as it turned out. Before his eyes, an entire wall toppled inward, crumbling to rubble as it fell.

And  _ something  _ burst into the center of the square.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaay first real chapter! Roxas is ENTIRELY too much fun to write, so expect a continuation fairly soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my fic! I make no promises about quality or promptness of updates. This first chapter is more of a prologue than a Chapter One™️, but AO3 doesn’t have a prologue option, so here we are. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!


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